Cyberattack KOs federal sites

WASHINGTON -- The Associated Press has learned that a widespread computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the websites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cybercrime.

Officials say the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and the Transportation Department's websites were all down at varying points over the weekend and into this week. Some were still experiencing problems or delays Tuesday evening.

Officials familiar with the outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government websites were still being affected three days after it began, signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. Several officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.